I went to see Arcade Fire at the Brixton Academy last night. It was a top gig: the Fire (as we're all calling them now, right?) make this HUGE sound, aided no doubt by the fact that there are hundreds of them in the band and they lug a giant pipe-organ around on tour with them. So that was great.

What was less great was the inter-song banter. There wasn't very much (not a problem) but what there was was mostly of the berating-the-crowd-for-not-being-lively-enough variety. I HATE that. I hate being told how to react to something. It's tricky because I also hate London gig audiences: it seems that most gig goers would rather talk loudly to each other than listen, or heaven forbid, dance to the music. But while I may disagree with their mojo, I'll defend to the death their right to, erm, "moj" it. This glacial "here we are now, entertain us" mentality is part of our cultural distinctiveness! If you want a crowd that whoops and hollers when you say hello then you can always go to the USA. When I was a stand-up dying on my arse in front of a hard to please crowd I didn't stop and berate them for being a bad audience. No sir! I got the hell off stage and resolved never to do it again... (Thinks - maybe that's not helping my point...)

Anyway my point is that it all gets a bit too Nuremberg for my liking when someone on stage instructs us how and what to feel. And now I've gone and proved Godwin's law which means I've lost an argument with myself. Pah!